Andy can potentially gain on Fed at IW this year. Last year, Fed won IW and Andy lost early. There are less than 2000 between them in the current rankings; Andy is getting closer to usurping Fed. (Fed is defending Rotterdam and Dubai in addition to IW).

If Andy makes number 2 with Nole 1 it will truly mark a major shift at the top. I think either one of Nadal or Fed have been number 1 OR number 2 for, like, a decade! Or close to it! When would the last time be that neither Fed nor Nadal were in either the numbers 1 or 2 positions in the rankings. Seriously... it must go back to 04 when Fed took over number 1, or even 03?

10.11.2003 was the last rankings where neither Federer or Nadal have been top two. Roddick and Ferrero were #1 and #2.

Andy can potentially gain on Fed at IW this year. Last year, Fed won IW and Andy lost early. There are less than 2000 between them in the current rankings; Andy is getting closer to usurping Fed. (Fed is defending Rotterdam and Dubai in addition to IW).

If Andy makes number 2 with Nole 1 it will truly mark a major shift at the top. I think either one of Nadal or Fed have been number 1 OR number 2 for, like, a decade! Or close to it! When would the last time be that neither Fed nor Nadal were in either the numbers 1 or 2 positions in the rankings. Seriously... it must go back to 04 when Fed took over number 1, or even 03?

I don't think Federer would ever dream about not playing a GS be it any one of them. I know Sampras skipped AO twice. Nadal has missed 3 Majors since 2008. That's a lot to miss and it does give Federer the edge to stay on top of things. Andy had his own dilemmas all this time. Good thing Nole came along in the meantime.

Andy should play the event SAP Open will be next year. SAP Open is in its last holding. I can imagine it will still be the same courts etc just somewhere else. Most of the winners of the SAP Open have gone on to do well in IW and Miami.

I think we just have to trust Lendl to know what he's doing. I certainly can't see anything to be gained by flying to Doha Dubai [always get them mixed up] and back and then not being really ready for IW as happened last year. That said I agree it would make sense to seek a wild card for Delray Beach even if the conditions are different to IW. After all he's practising in those different conditions and DB would give him a bit of match practice before the Masters. But thinking more long term and in terms of the strain on his body, I think Andy is sensible to reduce the number of matches he plays. He doesn't have to do a Ferrer to pick up the points he needs to maximise his ranking position.

I don't think it will do Andy any harm not to play before Indian Wells, in fact it might even do him good. It's been said a few times here that Andy should balance playing and resting, not that working with Lendl will be resting as such, better, so now he is. I think we have to trust that he and Lendl know what they are doing. I realise the danger of going in cold as it were, to Indian Wells, but maybe the reverse is that he will arrive there fresh, which he may not have done in recent years.

The way I look at it is that Indian Wells can't possibly go worse than it has over the last couple of years. Andy has nothing to speak of to defend there, so if he gets through his opening match this year, and I have confidence he will, he can begin gaining some points. After that, anything is possible.

I think Andy is wise in his approach to moving upwards in the rankings. The thing is, he could do what Ferrer did last year, and even what Federer did to a point, to get back to no.1. Andy could run around like a headless chicken, playing small tournaments to gain points. That sounds all right, but it could leave him tired for when it matters. Andy's approach now seems to be to focus on being ready for each tournament as it comes, so playing fewer, but concentrating on how he plays. Makes sense to me.